Position Letter CEDCD – Mental Disability Advocacy Centre

TO: THE MINISTRY OF NATIONAL EDUCATION AND SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH (MNESR)

To the attention of Mr. Minister Adrian CURAJ

THE MINISTRY OF LABOUR, FAMILY, SOCIAL PROTECTION AND ELDERLY

To the attention of Mr. Minister Dragoş PÎSLAR

BUCHAREST’S SCHOOL INSPECTORATE

To the attention of Mr. Inspector-General Ionel Florian LIXANDRU

THE NATIONAL AGENCY FOR QUALITY ASSURANCE IN PRE-UNIVERSITY EDUCATION

To the attention of Mr. President Şerban IOSIFESCU

THE GENERAL DIRECTORATE OF SOCIAL ASSISTANCE AND CHILD PROTECTION – DISTRICT 4

To the attention of Mr. Manager Costel ENE

BUCHAREST CITY HALL DISTRICT 4

To the attention of Mr. Mayor Daniel BĂLUŢĂ

MIHAI EMINESCU HIGH SCHOOL

To the attention of Mrs. Headmaster Tanţa Simona BELDIE

We address this letter to express our deepest concern over the breach of the right to inclusive education of the minor Ștefan-Moshe Stoian, aged 15, from Mihai Eminescu High School in Bucharest. Denying education constitutes a flagrant violation of national and international law.

Ştefan has physical impairments, which require a series of adaptations, including such from the perspective of mobility and classroom furniture. Given the difficulties in using his hands, he needs support for activities, such as opening his lunch box or help with taking notes during class. Ştefan needs an Individualized Education Program which takes account, among others, of his mandatory physical therapy sessions, which he must attend, and includes a plan of personalized services. Furthermore, adapting the teaching and examination methods to the speaking and writing characteristics of the pupil is absolutely mandatory.

We stress that the school has the legal obligation to provide these types of physical and informational adaptations, as well as appropriate solutions for accommodating Ștefan, a pupil of the aforementioned high school since September 2015. However, until the present date, the only measure the school has taken was to transform a formerly inaccessible toilet in one accessible to pupils with disabilities. No other measures were taken to facilitate access of the pupil to school or inside the classrooms. The absence of such mandatory adaptation measures, as well as the lack of a support toilet in school, have led his mother to carry him on the school stairs and pay for a personal assistant, a minimal measure that should have been ensured by the state.

In November 2015, Ștefan accepted to be temporarily home-schooled, while solutions for this situation were to be identified. However, even in this context, the school did not manage to send any teachers to his home and, even more severe, the pupil was declared absent from class. From the beginning of February 2016 until the present, the school has denied access of the minor’s personal assistant inside the building, without offering alternative solutions to support Ştefan.

As a consequence, Ștefan is now unable to access school classes. Moreover, the school’s teachers refuse to cooperate with Ștefan’s support teacher to elaborate an individualized education program. Some of them have openly expressed their refusal to teach for Ștefan, in written form, and demanded that he be moved to a special school.

Our organizations were informed that the school has ceased any type of communication with Ștefan, who, in spite of being officially enrolled to Mihai Eminescu High School, does not benefit of any form of education meant to ensure the progress appropriate for his age and abilities. We consider the school’s attitude a premeditated and abusive measure, meant to create the necessary context for Ștefan’s expulsion from school, under the pretence of a failure to meet the required standards. In fact, currently, the minor is being denied the right to education.

Ștefan was the victim of similar attitudes in his former school too, against which his mother has filed court actions. Ştefan’s case is the subject of a file at the European Court of Human Rights, while the Romanian Government has already been solicited to respond to these allegations of human rights infringement.

We stress that the school infringes Article 12 of Law no. 1/2011 regarding National Education and Article 13§1 of Law no. 448/2006 regarding the protection and promotion of the rights of persons with disabilities.

Denying the right to inclusive education for Ştefan is a flagrant breach of the international provisions on the matter, which Romania is obliged to respect, including the provisions of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). Both Conventions were ratified by Romania, both of them establishing the right to inclusive education for all children, including those with disabilities, regardless of their impairment or type of support they may need.

We, the signatory organizations – European Center for the Rights of Children with Disabilities (ECRCD) and Mental Disability Advocacy Centre (MDAC) ask the recipients of this letter to take urgent measures, so Ştefan can benefit of his right to inclusive education.

In this respect, we demand, among other, to rapidly adopt the following measures:

1. Instruct the management of Mihai Eminescu High School regarding the following:
2. facilitate access for Ştefan to the school unit through adaptation measures of the physical environment;
3. provide the pupil with the necessary support and reasonable adaptation measures;
4. initiate, as a matter of urgency, the elaboration of an individualized education plan for Ştefan with the purpose of offering a quality curriculum adapted to his needs and offering equality with all other pupils, as well as an individualized services plan;
5. consult the pupil for elaborating a recovery plan for the period in which he did not benefit of inclusive education, by organizing supplementary teaching courses.
6. Verify compliance with the quality standards according to the legal provisions in force in respect to quality assurance in secondary education.
7. Adopt the necessary measures to bring individuals responsible of direct discrimination acts against Ștefan in front of the relevant professional and regulatory bodies.

Furthermore, in this context, we are launching the invitation to attend or delegate a representative of your institution at the Press Conference organized by ECRCD and MDAC, on Monday, April 25^th, 2016, starting with 10.00, regarding the case of Ștefan Stoian and other similar cases and invite you to express your opinion on the matter. The event will take place at Hotel Ramada Majestic on Calea Victoriei No. 38-40, Sect. 1.

Thank you,

Signatory organizations: